A multi-agent based negotiation support system for cost allocation of cross-border transmission

The power industry used to be protected and regulated; consumers were forced to buy electricity from particular suppliers and suffered high prices and low quality of service (QoS). After deregulation, the original boundary lines have been removed and consumers have more alternatives. How to support optimal planning of cross-border electricity trade has become an important issue since then. Decentralization, or participants´ right to participate in decision-making, is one of the directions of deregulation. In this paper a decentralized structure is suggested to solve the problem by using multi-agent technology to create autonomy for each participant. In such structure the centralization of information transmission or decision-making is prevented. Each participant behaves rationally to search for best benefit or payoff through the information she or he owns or through information exchange with other participants. Although all the market participants make decisions to protect their own benefits, the optimal solution (total costs) of the whole system can be achieved finally. This structure is implemented using Multi-Agent System for Cross-Border Trade (MASCBT), which was developed using Java programming language. A demonstration on a 5-area test system shows that the suggested new approach is effective and promising.